RAAF "Grey Nurse" Spitfire colours

[robstopper]

I'm building a MkVIII Spitfire in the RAAF Grey Nurse colours of Bobby Gibbes. I note from the instructions that in-period it had a half-and-half scheme with slightly different shades of green.

 

I'm not too keen on this look, so will be using consistant colours from nose to tail. The green on todays examples of Grey Nurse Spits is darker than the standard dark green of the RAF european theatre aircraft it seems.

 

Can anyone recommend an appropriate Humbrol acrylic shade for me please?

[Troy Smith]

6 hours ago, robstopper said:

The green on todays examples of Grey Nurse Spits is darker than the standard dark green of the RAF european theatre aircraft it seems.

Warbirds are not to be trusted for colour accuracy.

 

Do you want to do your model as the current warbird, or as a WW2 plane?   if you want WW2, and a consistent green, use RAF Dark Green. 

for a darker green?  US olive Drab, Humbrol 155 would perhaps work.

 

For the warbird?  IIRC, (and IF I can get to the Aussie Eight book I'll check) ,  the plane was standard RAF Day Fighter Scheme.  the two tone green came from using RAAF Foilage Green for some overpaints and touch up.

Hmm, @Ed Russell would be a good person to ask.

[Rabbit Leader]

RAAF touch-ups were ‘most probably’ applied in Foliage Green and Humbrol 149 is a fairly good match. I’m sure other colours ‘may’ have been used, however this is what I would recommend. 
 

Now if you want a fairly ‘consistent’ look then just use the basic RAF late war colours of Dark Green and Ocean Grey over Medium Sea Grey. Humbrol 116 will do you for the Dark Green. The use of Olive Drab (IMO) would be best suited to a US produced aircraft and not one delivered from the UK. 
 

Cheers.. Dave 

[Ed Russell]

@robstopper PM me your email address and I'll send you a diagram. The "two greens" scheme was a very early interpretation of RAAF colours and is not factual.  The restoration at Temora is pretty good but done in modern colours so it won't fade quickly.

[robstopper]

Cheers for the advice. I'm after a modern day interpretation really, rather than the in-theatre touch-up patchwork. Something like this 

 

That highlights perfectly the difference between the standard RAF day fighter scheme and the RAAF i want to do....something different to every other spit in my collection! 😅

[robstopper]

So, I did a bit of experimenting, and mixed up a shade of dark green which looks acceptably close (to my eyes anyway!) to that in the picture I posted above.

 

WIP pics

 

It definitely looks "different" enough in comparison to my MkIX Spits to mirror the above real life pic

[draggie748]

The difference in colours in the two aircraft shown, although both are in the standard RAF Day Fighter Scheme, is that the closer Mk VIII is in 2-part Polyurathene Gloss, where the rear Mk 16 is in a two-part Polyuratnene Semi-Gloss. The different shades of Green and Grey shown on RAAF MkVIIIs is that when the markings were modified at the Aircraft Depots prior to issue to units the RAF markings were modified using Foliage Green and RAAF Dark Grey which were the closest equivalents the RAAF had to RAF Dark Green and Ocean Grey.

HTH

Phil Hastie

Canberra

The Nation's Capital

[robstopper]

Finished the kit today. I appreciate it's probably not 100% historically accurate, but I have taken inspiration from the modern Grey Nurse examples and how they "appear" to be slightly different from the RAF day fighter scheme, but technically they're a lot closer. I wanted something on the shelf that looked a little more unusual compared to the rest of my squadron, and I'm happy with how this turned out. Hope you all approve of the direction I took with it

 

[draggie748]

Nice job. One small point to remember as the bosses aircraft this would have been kept pretty clean by the ground crew.